To kick things off, we're going to do a double-campaign: the Arbitrarys "Heat the Suck" and Corey Wintemute's "Oh Jughead."
According to Meow Records' files, the Arbitrarys' album "Anticipation is Our Destination" is the best-selling local disk on record, making them a logical choice for a fan campaign. If you catch the Arbitrarys today you're likely to see a raucous four-piece group playing songs ranging in style from Netural Milk Hotel to Tom Waits. "Heat the Suck" takes us back to a gentler time, when they were a two-piece acoustic duo.
Corey Wintemute has been in a number of local bands, including the Transmogrifiers, Hey Everyone!, and the Loins, a group that focused solely on songs about the Oregon Trail. As of today (May 6) he is the newest member of the New Music Canada page, and his song "Oh Jughead" (which was the first and only song released in the Meow Records Vinyl Society) has been played on a variety of campus radio programs across the country and even on CBC Radio One's "All Points West."
REMEMBER: Request these songs on Radio 3 by:
:: post them on radio3.cbc.ca
:: call them in to 1-877-955-6565, ex. 2
:: email feedback@cbcradio3.com
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Contact Us
We are interested in general comments, questions, and feedback. We also welcome new ideas on how to promote Prince George bands (ie. contacting other radio stations, zines, making stickers, whatever).
If you are a Prince George band looking for some love, please let us know. We are especially interested when you have a new single/album you're looking to promote. The more notice, the better.
There are three ways to contact us:
Leave a note on this blog.
Join our Facebook group.
Or, if you want to get all old-school about it, you can email us at beetlewoodbands@gmail.com.
About
What To Do
Home
If you are a Prince George band looking for some love, please let us know. We are especially interested when you have a new single/album you're looking to promote. The more notice, the better.
There are three ways to contact us:
Leave a note on this blog.
Join our Facebook group.
Or, if you want to get all old-school about it, you can email us at beetlewoodbands@gmail.com.
About
What To Do
Home
What to Do
FANS
Right now we are focusing on getting airplay on CBC Radio 3. If you other campaign suggestions, please contact us.
There are three ways to request a song on CBC Radio 3.
:: post them on radio3.cbc.ca
:: call them in to 1-877-955-6565, ex. 2
:: email feedback@cbcradio3.com
If you call in, you might become a "guest host" for the Audience Tuesday Track of the Day podcast.
BANDS
In order to be supported in this campaign, you must have your stuff on the New Music Canada website. You don't lose song ownership by posting, it just makes your stuff available to stream (as in on MySpace) and to be played on CBC Radio 3 (via the web, the satellite station, and the podcast). Plenty of established and upcoming bands do this, from DOA to Sloan to the Arcade Fire. If you need more information, I suggest visiting the site and reading the Help/Info and SIGN UP pages.
If you are interested in participating but don't want to do the work yourself, we'll do it for you, just CONTACT US.
Also, please CONTACT US when you have uploaded a new track. It makes sense for us to try to promote current songs rather than ones that are a few years old.
Right now we are focusing on getting airplay on CBC Radio 3. If you other campaign suggestions, please contact us.
There are three ways to request a song on CBC Radio 3.
:: post them on radio3.cbc.ca
:: call them in to 1-877-955-6565, ex. 2
:: email feedback@cbcradio3.com
If you call in, you might become a "guest host" for the Audience Tuesday Track of the Day podcast.
BANDS
In order to be supported in this campaign, you must have your stuff on the New Music Canada website. You don't lose song ownership by posting, it just makes your stuff available to stream (as in on MySpace) and to be played on CBC Radio 3 (via the web, the satellite station, and the podcast). Plenty of established and upcoming bands do this, from DOA to Sloan to the Arcade Fire. If you need more information, I suggest visiting the site and reading the Help/Info and SIGN UP pages.
If you are interested in participating but don't want to do the work yourself, we'll do it for you, just CONTACT US.
Also, please CONTACT US when you have uploaded a new track. It makes sense for us to try to promote current songs rather than ones that are a few years old.
About
Beetlewood Bands is a poorly-named group devoted to getting airplay and publicity for Prince George's independent music community by having supporters request one specific song by one specific artist for a set amount of time (I'm thinking two weeks, but if anyone has suggestions, let me know).
Currently, the campaign is targeted at getting songs played on CBC Radio 3, because a. it is a national station devoted to promoting independent Canadian music and b. it has a variety of ways in which listeners can program what it plays (for example, its countdown show is based in part on listener requests; every week one "Track of the Day" is chosen by audience members; it occasionally has entire blocks of programing made up of requests).
But can it work?
I think so, yes. A lot of the music being produced in Prince George is on par with what is being done in the rest of the country, but it doesn't get (much) national airplay when compared to bands from bigger cities. My guess is this is because we have a smaller built-in audience than cities like Vancouver and Montreal. Thus, if say 5% of a localized music community in Vancouver requests a song it translates into much bigger numbers than if 5% of Prince George fans do the same. One way to offset this is if the Prince George music community organizes itself better. This means that instead of everyone randomly voting for different songs at different times, we all vote for the same song during the same time period. Hypothetically, at least, this would translate into a greater chance of cracking the playlists.
We've seen what happens when the PG music fans mobilize with the crowning of Meow Records as the best music store in Canada. This got attention in media outlets from the CBC to the National Post to the Georgia Strait to the Calgary Sun. The next step should be to promote some of the bands found within this music community.
WHAT TO DO
CONTACT
Currently, the campaign is targeted at getting songs played on CBC Radio 3, because a. it is a national station devoted to promoting independent Canadian music and b. it has a variety of ways in which listeners can program what it plays (for example, its countdown show is based in part on listener requests; every week one "Track of the Day" is chosen by audience members; it occasionally has entire blocks of programing made up of requests).
But can it work?
I think so, yes. A lot of the music being produced in Prince George is on par with what is being done in the rest of the country, but it doesn't get (much) national airplay when compared to bands from bigger cities. My guess is this is because we have a smaller built-in audience than cities like Vancouver and Montreal. Thus, if say 5% of a localized music community in Vancouver requests a song it translates into much bigger numbers than if 5% of Prince George fans do the same. One way to offset this is if the Prince George music community organizes itself better. This means that instead of everyone randomly voting for different songs at different times, we all vote for the same song during the same time period. Hypothetically, at least, this would translate into a greater chance of cracking the playlists.
We've seen what happens when the PG music fans mobilize with the crowning of Meow Records as the best music store in Canada. This got attention in media outlets from the CBC to the National Post to the Georgia Strait to the Calgary Sun. The next step should be to promote some of the bands found within this music community.
WHAT TO DO
CONTACT
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